| Brief Description |
An iconic black and white photograph of Mother Mary Aubert with a large group of orphans. Mother Aubert stands at the back of the group holding a young child in a dress, with 39 other children ranging in age from new babies to young teenagers.
French-born Suzanne Aubert spent 16 years at Hiruharama (Jerusalem) on the Whanganui River. She had arrived in New Zealand in 1860 as a Catholic nun, to be a missionary to Maori. She moved to the Whanganui River district in 1883 and soon started taking in orphans and incurables. She set up a school, bought land and planted an orchard, produced and sold medicines and published a book of Maori conversations. She raised money to rebuild the church already at Jeruslalem, and a convent. Her work with the poor and with children led to the establishment of New Zealand’s first religious order, the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion, in 1892. The order’s headquarters were established in Wellington and a small group maintains the legacy of Mother Aubert at Jerusalem.
The Maori settlement of Patiarero was once the largest kainga (settlement) on the Whanganui River. It was renamed Jerusalem, or Hiruharama, by Anglican missionary Richard Taylor in the 1840s.
Jerusalem gained national attention in the 1970s when poet James K Baxter made it his home and attracted followers to the community. Baxter died in 1972 and is buried at Jerusalem.
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